Indian army to help prevent rhino poaching
GAUHATI, India - Authorities in northeastern India have asked the army to help protect endangered one-horned rhinoceroses from poachers and have made the soldiers honorary wildlife wardens, officials said Saturday.
"The army will now assist the authorities at the Kaziranga National Park in protecting the rhino," park director S.N. Buragohain told The Associated Press.
The soldiers will live in tents in the park, he said.
The 267 square mile park, about 135 miles east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, is home to more than 1,800 of the world's estimated 3,000 one-horned rhinoceroses.
Poachers killed about 20 rhinos in the park last year and six have been killed so far this year.
"The army's presence is expected to keep poachers away. This is good news for us," Buragohain said.
Soldiers have also been asked to be part of anti-poaching drives in at least six other national parks and sanctuaries in the state.
Gangs of armed poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe have aphrodisiac qualities and are used in medicines in parts of South and Southeast Asia.
Rhino horns are also popular in the Middle East, where they are fashioned into handles for ornamental daggers.
Authorities in Assam earlier deployed lightly armed forest guards in Kaziranga who were unable to stop the poaching.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Indian army to help prevent rhino poaching
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Greenwich Royal Observatory - Timekeeper to the world
The Greenwich Royal Observatory
Timekeeper to the world
-- Friday' News Paper
Compiled by David A. Perera
during his recent visit to Lonodon
The observatory building was built by the great British architect of the 17th century, Sir Christopher Wren in 1675. Parts of the old observatory are now a museum and called the Flamsteed House.
Thousands of visitors who arrive at the Greenwich observatory can see the big clock-face showing the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Greenwich meridian marked on the ground from which the longitude is measured.
The Flamsteed House has now put up a millennium e-clock showing the time, date and year with an accuracy of a millionth of a second.
A meridian is an arbitrary north/south line chosen by an astronomer. With a telescope or quadrant positioned on a meridian, the astronomer can measure the exact moment the stars and planets cross, or transit the sight of the instrument.
By comparing thousands of observations taken from the same meridian, it is possible to build up an accurate map of the night sky. In the past many meridians have been used by astronomers, Greenwich was recognised as the home of the Prime Meridian, or Longitude 00 in 1884.
Centre of Transit
Circle
Latitude: 51” 28’ 38” North
Longitude: 0” 00’ 00”
Courtesy: Encyclopaedia Britannica
| | |
| A view of Central London (background) and the Maritime/Naval buildings | Reflector 40’, the largest telescope at the time |
| |  |
| GMT clock and British units of length and weight specimens | Edmond Halley |
Edmond Halley’s Tombstone:
The Latin Inscription reads:
“Beneath this gravestone, Edmond Halley, unquestionably the most eminent of the astronomers of his age rests peacefully with his dearest wife so that the reader may know what kind and how a great man [Halley] was, read his various writings in which he dignified, embellished and strengthened almost all the arts and sciences.
And, therefore, as he was a man so greatly cherished by his fellow-citizens during his lifetime, so let a grateful posterity venerate his memory. Born in the year of our Lord 1656. Died 1741/2. This stone was consecrated to excellent parents by to devoted daughters in the year 1742.”
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
9/11: Looking back and moving forward - 9/11: Six Years Later : hat we learned from 9/11 - A turning point in history
9/11: Looking back and moving forward - Daily Mirror
By B. Raman
On September 11, 2007, the international community completes six years of the so-called war on global terrorism being waged separately and jointly by the countries of the world affected by the scourge of terrorism.
The war has had a mixed record----positive as well as negative. The most positive has been the acceptance by the international community that terrorism is an absolute evil and cannot be justified whatever be the cause. Old cliches of one man's terrorist being another man's freedom-fighter and one nation's State-sponsor of terrorism being another nation's frontline ally against terrorism have not disappeared from common lexicon, but do not now carry the same conviction as in the past.
The second important positive outcome has been the acceptance of the need for international co-operation in dealing with terrorism. There has been a greater co-operation since 9/11 and greater transparency in relation to the co-operation. The fact of such co-operation is no longer treated as a classified secret, but the operational details are----for valid reasons. The international community has realised the importance of letting the terrorists know that the intelligence and security agencies of the world are acting together to crush terrorism. The conference of the intelligence chiefs of the Asia-Pacific region held recently at Kuala Lumpur at the joint initiative of the US and Malaysia is a good illustration of the way the co-operation has developed.
The co-operation has not only been at the level of intelligence-sharing. It has also been at the operational level where counter-terrorism agencies come in. Before 9/11, such operational co-operation existed only among ideologically like-minded countries such as the members of the NATO, the Commonwealth, the former members of the Warsaw Pact etc. Now, one sees instances of operational co-operation against terrorism even among countries with no ideological convergence. Examples of the growing operational co-operation are the joint counter-terrorism exercises at the bilateral and multi-national levels, the frequent brain-storming at regional and international levels by governmental and non-governmental experts, etc
The growing international co-operation in matters such as intelligence-sharing and action against terrorist funding and gun running has already had beneficial side effects in helping in the campaigns being waged by different countries against purely indigenous terrorism without any links to Al Qaeda. As examples of such beneficial side-effects one could mention the decision of the Irish Republican Army, the Basque separatist movement of Spain and the Free Aceh Movement of Indonesia to give up terrorism and seek a political solution to their demands. The non-countenance of terrorism by the international community has also contributed to the difficulties faced by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in its clandestine procurement and smuggling of arms and ammunition from abroad.
The international community could also draw satisfaction from the fact that Al Qaeda and other jihadi terrorist organisations aligned with it have not so far succeeded in organising any successful catastrophic act of terrorism against maritime and energy security, the critical infrastructure, including the information infrastructure, and the global economy. The global economy, including in Asia, the region most affected by terrorism of various hues, has continued to progress despite sporadic acts of terrorism directed against certain sectors of the economy such as tourism. International co-operation has prevented so far any act of terrorism involving the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or weapons of mass disruption.
Regional and international co-operation to enforce maritime security has not only prevented so far any catastrophic act of maritime terrorism, but has also helped in bringing trans-national piracy in the South-East Asian region under control. The number of major attacks by pirates in the South-East Asian region declined from a high of 70 in 2001 to 28 in 2003, 18 in 2005, and 10 in 2006.In the second quarter of 2007, no major pirate attacks were reported from this region.
The damage in men and equipment suffered by pirate gangs during the Tsunami of December 2004 did contribute to some extent to this fall, but increased maritime security co-operation with measures such as co-ordinated patrolling of the Malacca Straits by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia played an important role in bringing about this decline. India has also been playing a discreet, but significant role in contributing to a strengthening of maritime security without giving rise to fears of any ulterior strategic motives. The growing Indian naval capabilities reassure the nations of the region unlike the Chinese naval power, which unnerves.
Concerns of the international community over the dangers of the jihadi terrorists succeeding in getting hold of WMD led to vigorous action against a group of nuclear scientists of Pakistan headed by Dr. A. Q. Khan, who were indulging in large-scale clandestine nuclear trade with impunity till 2003. There is now a recognition that if there is an act of catastrophic terrorism involving the use of WMD, this would most probably originate from Pakistan. Hence, the increased focus on Pakistan in this regard.
Co-operation to prevent cyber terrorism has also made headway despite concerns aroused in the minds of many countries over attempts made by the US intelligence agencies to exploit this co-operation for penetrating sensitive government departments of some countries.
India itself was a major victim of this penetration. The US intelligence exploited the joint Indo-US Cyber Security Forum, which came up in the wake of 9/11, to penetrate the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) of the Government of India, which comes under the Prime Minister's Office. The US has been the driving force behind the counter-terrorism co-operation infrastructure, which has come up after 9/11. It has the human and material resources. It has the know-how and technology. But the US never fights shy of exploiting international co-operation to achieve its own national strategic objectives-----whether in terms of penetration of other Governments, securing a military presence for it in foreign territories, pushing through its own ideas etc. The activist role of the US in building the co-operation architecture has had beneficial as well as harmful effects. How to take advantage of the benign dimensions of the US capabilities and role while avoiding being hurt by the malign dimensions is a question, which has to engage the attention of national security managers.
The US has successfully managed to prevent so far a repeat of 9/11 in its homeland. While the tightening of the laws relating to terrorism and strengthened homeland security measures have contributed to this, one should also underline the role played by non-governmental groups and even private individuals in the US in monitoring the Internet-related activities of jihadi terrorist groups, which has helped the Government in its counter-terrorism preventive measures. US citizens have provided a very good example of the useful role, which alert and well-motivated individual citizens can play in counter-terrorism.
This is worthy of emulation by citizens of other countries, including India. Victim and citizen activism in fighting terrorism in the US is a matter for admiration and emulation by other nations and societies. One saw the way the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist strikes mobilised themselves to ensure that their Government took the necessary follow-up action----whether it be in the matter of the enquiry into the failure to prevent 9/11, the implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission on 9/11, strengthening counter-terrorism laws and capabilities or strengthening the political will to fight terrorism. Thanks to this citizen and victim activism, no political leader in the US today can afford to take a soft stance on terrorism and survive in politics.
The lack of citizen and victim activism continues to be the bane of the Indian counter-terrorism scene despite the fact that more innocent civilians have died at the hands of trans-national and indigenous terrorists in India than in any other country of he world.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, the Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai
Courtesy South Asia Analysis Group
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9/11: Six Years Later Daily News
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre Twin Towers in New York. Here we reproduce several articles on 9/11: Six Years Later from the regional press in the USA.
Americans will forget 9/11 at their peril
Cal Thomas
Throughout our young history, Americans have been admonished to ''Remember the Alamo,'' ''Remember the Maine'' and ''Remember Pearl Harbour.'' These remembrances - and others - were for the purpose of motivating the public to fight on until an enemy was vanquished. When victory was assured, the memory faded into history.
Now, as we approach the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, there are suggestions that we should begin to forget the worst terrorist incident in America's history. Recently, a front-page story in The New York Times suggested it is becoming too much of a burden to remember the attack, that nothing new can be said about it and that, perhaps, Sept. 11 ''fatigue'' may be setting in.
Charlene Correia, a nursing supervisor from Acushnet, Mass., is quoted as saying, ''I may sound callous, but doesn't grieving have a shelf life? We're very sorry and mournful that people died, but there are living people.
Let's wind it down.'' Yes, Sept. 11 forces us to be serious, not only about those who died and why they died at the hands of religious fanatics, but also so that we won't forget that it could very well happen again and many of today's living might end up as yesterday's dead. That is the purpose of remembering Sept. 11, not to engage in perpetual mourning. The war goes on and to be reminded of Sept.
11 serves as the ultimate protection against forgetfulness.
Images of the Twin Towers is used on jihadist Websites for the purpose of recruiting new ''martyrs.'' What's the matter with some people? Does remembering not only Sept. 11 but the stakes in this world war interfere too much with our pursuit of money, things and pleasure? Serious times require serious thought and serious action. In our frivolous times, full of trivialities and irrelevancies, to be serious is to abandon self-indulgence for survival, entertainment for the stiffened spine.
''Few Americans give much thought anymore on Dec. 7 that Pearl Harbour was attacked,'' says the "Times" writer, who goes on to mention Nov. 22, 1963 (the date of JFK's assassination), the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, and the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995.
The difference between those tragic events and Sept. 11 is that Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, is dead, as is Timothy McVeigh, and the Vietnam War ended long ago. While all of the Sept. 11 hijackers died, their ideological and religious colleagues are plotting new attacks in a war that is far from over.
''Why didn't we see 9/11 coming?'' was a question frequently asked in the aftermath of that terrorist attack. And the answer should be, because we forgot the attacks preceding that one, or brushed them off as inconsequential aberrations so we could get back to watching the stock market go up and obsess about Bill Clinton's pants coming down.
By not remembering those earlier attacks, the reasons behind them and the intentions of the terrorists and those who trained and incited them, we put ourselves in further jeopardy.
Sept. 11 should not be remembered for maudlin, ghoulish and certainly not for nostalgic reasons. Unlike those other mostly forgotten or no longer observed dates, this one is key to defending ourselves from a future attack and further disasters.
Not to remember Sept. 11, is to forget what brought it about. That can lead to a lowering of our guard and a false sense of security, the conditions that existed immediately prior to that awful day six years ago.
Indiana University history professor John Bodnar is asked in the Times story what might happen on Sept. 11 a hundred years from now. He replies, ''It's conceivable that it could be virtually forgotten.'' It might be forgotten - or relegated to a ''Jeopardy'' answer - but only if we win the war against Islamofascism. If we don't, Sept. 11 will stand as a day of infamy with consequences to humanity far worse than Dec. 7, 1941.
Salt Lake Tribune
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Our View: What we learned from 9/11
Any democracy serious about the well-being of its people should re-examine how well its government works regularly. Perhaps Sept. 11 each year is a good time to do that.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 showed the flaws in our system of national security, most obviously. But with the help of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission we came to see many more flaws in a variety of institutions that made us vulnerable to those attacks.
We saw flaws in the communication between our intelligence agencies; we saw flaws in our diplomatic efforts overseas; we saw flaws in our system of airline security, and we saw flaws in our ability to correct those problems in airline security even though the Government Accountability Office had pointed out those flaws years before 2001.
We came to realise shortcomings in our ability to rally world support around our cause. That came in reaction to our willingness to reject the solutions of our friends at the United Nations.
We didn't wait for the U.N. to sanction Saddam Hussein. Clearly, we did away with an evil dictator faster than the United Nations could or would have. But we also paid a cost that put more of the death toll on American soldiers because members of the United Nations were unwilling to put more of their own soldiers on the front lines.
What we learned from that is somewhat unclear. But it's heartening to see that Washington seems to be working more closely with the U.N. to rein in Iran and North Korea. Working with the U.N. on North Korea's nuclear threat is working, by and large.
The jury is still out on whether it will work with Iran.
American business learned quickly some lessons about how the terrorist attacks and our attack on Iraq disrupted world oil markets.
It became all too clear that the lifeblood of some American industries could be cutoff with a series of incendiary explosive devices made by rogue militias in the streets of Baghdad. We learned to build an alternative fuels industry, with the help of government subsidies, that continues to reduce some of the risk of volatile world oil markets.
Clearly, Sept. 11, 2001 magnified the power of the forces of evil in the world. It should also highlight the need for the United States to gather democracy-minded friends around the world, or even friends who are not so democracy minded just yet, to come together in defense of innocent people under attack from those motivated not by justice but by jihad.
To that end, we've made progress. Last week Congress approved a 10 percent increase in U.S. foreign aid to $34 billion, a figure $700 million less than President Bush requested, and a figure many international experts say is still too small given it is usually less than 1 or 2 percent of the entire U.S. budget. The bill also allocated some $500 million in educational aid aimed at mostly Muslim countries.
The lesson here becomes it is cheaper to help our friends around the globe by offering humanitarian aid than military aid. When human beings have the basics of daily living, they can more seriously consider the complex and costly system of democracy.
Six years after the wake-up call of Sept. 11, we're back in the race to bring peace and democracy to those in the world who desire it, but we're still a long way from the finish line.
The Free Press, Minnesota
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A turning point in history
Leesha Faulkner
History takes only seconds to make but, say those who teach it, years to understand. Witness great events that affected so many generations: the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the murders of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy and, most recently, the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
On that day, now just known as 9/11, terrorists took over passenger planes and slammed them into buildings in New York and Washington and into a field in Pennsylvania. Six years later, we still don't understand the historical context.
On many campuses, college professors teach the catastrophe that killed 256 people on four planes and 2,725 people on the ground at the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in a variety of ways. And, they teach it as part of something larger, not as a single historic event.
That's because it takes the passage of time, analysis and availability of documents to dissect an event, write about it and consider it, said historian Elizabeth Payne of the University of Mississippi.
It may take years before historians find clarity about 9/11. Some of the questions: In what context did this event play out? What international political pressure led up to this?
Did this event give birth to a new patriotism in the U.S.? What is the overall historical theme of 9/11? The beginnings of the Cold War, which marked the struggle between U.S. democracy and Soviet communism, is one example of a historic event that has reached sufficient age to provide fertile ground for academic research.
Several schools of thought exist about the Cold War's origins. The traditionalists, who were there and helped form policy during the 1960s, wrote about it from the perspective that the Soviets were responsible for the breakdown in relationships and that it was necessary for the U.S. to contain the spread of communism.
The revisionists of the late 1970s primarily saw the U.S.'s push to become a world cop and the U.S.'s untrustworthy behaviour during World War II as a primary cause of the tensions with the Soviets.
The latest school of thought emerged during the 1980s and 1990s from the post-revisionists - a consensus-type perspective that blamed actions and miscommunications on both sides for the Cold World tensions.
There's a name for this history of writing history: historiography. Payne points to a lack of historiography of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as one reason it's not taught per se in college or in university classrooms by many professors. This isn't a bad thing; it's just how history is written.
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Friday, August 3, 2007
"The bridge' is broken down, with getting lifes in America
Problems with Minnesota bridge noted twice since 2001
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Two reports published since 2001 pointed to structural problems with the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed Wednesday into the Mississippi River, but both reports determined the bridge was safe despite deficiencies.
"The bridge's deck truss system has not experienced fatigue cracking, but it has many poor fatigue details on the main truss and the floor truss system," said a report conducted for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2001.
The 40-year-old bridge is of a type known as deck steel truss. It has three parts: a deck, superstructure and substructure.
The deck is made of concrete and rebar, the superstructure is made of steel and the substructure is made of steel and concrete footing, according to Mark Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the collapse that killed at least four people and injured dozens Wednesday.
Rosenker is leading a 19-member team charged with determining the cause of the accident. He asked that anyone with still pictures or video contact NTSB investigators at 866-328-6347.
The executive summary of the 2001 Minnesota Department of Transportation report -- undertaken by the University of Minnesota's Department of Civil Engineering -- points to fatigue problems with the bridge's approach span, the segments that connect the main span of the bridge to land.
However, the report said, "Fatigue cracking is not expected during the remaining useful life of the bridge." Video Watch the bridge collapse »
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database concluded the bridge was "structurally deficient."
Minnesota Department of Transportation bridge engineer Dan Dorgan said the term "structurally deficient" is a Federal Highway Administration rating.
Inspectors rate sections of the bridge on a 1 to 9 scale, with 9 being in excellent condition, he said.
"A structurally deficient condition is a bridge that would have a rating of 4 either in the deck, the superstructure or the substructure," he said. "Any one of those in condition 4 or less is considered structurally deficient."
But, he noted, out of 13,000 state and local bridges in Minnesota that are 20 feet and more in span, 1,160 of them -- 8 percent of the state's bridges -- are considered structurally deficient.
Tom Everett of the Federal Highway Administration's National Bridge Inspection Program said the structurally deficient rating was a "programatic classification rather than an indication of safety."
"It does not indicate a bridge is dangerous or that that bridge must be replaced," he said.
The Minnesota bridge was deemed structurally deficient in 1990, Dorgan said, "due to corrosion of the bearings, so they were not able to move as freely as designed."
Later, inspectors found corrosion of steel around joints in the bridge and fatigue cracks in the approach spans. Those problems were repaired in the 1990s.
"Recent inspections in 2005 and 2006 found no evidence of cracking or growth in the existing cracks in the tab well that have been there since the day the bridge was built," he said. Dorgan also cited an in-depth study of the bridge's fatigue potential conducted from 2004 to 2007 that recommended two alternatives for the bridge's future -- to add steel plates to reinforce critical parts of the bridge or to conduct thorough inspections of the wells inside the box to determine whether there were cracks.
"We chose the inspection route, and began in May," he said, adding that officials intended to replace the bridge about 2020.
"We had the bridge partially inspected and were going to complete that this fall after construction was done."
During a Wednesday news conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty described the bridge deficiencies as "minor" and said the state was told that the bridge's deck may need to be rehabilitated or replaced in 2020 or later. Photo View photos from the disaster »
"It was last inspected both in 2005 and 2006. There were no structural deficiencies identified according to [the Minnesota Department of Transportation]," Pawlenty said.
Vital clues about what caused the bridge to crumble may be lying in the Mississippi River.
One expert said it was baffling how the bridge collapsed.
"I am totally puzzled as to why both ends of the bridge would come down all at once. When my colleague tested it, it was very low stress," said Ted Galambos, a University of Minnesota engineering professor. "I don't think it was overload, so it could have been either some fatigue, failure or some sudden buckling that would cause the failure."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the collapse should trigger action.
"I think we should look at this tragedy that occurred as a wake-up call for us. We have -- all over the country -- crumbling infrastructure, highways, bridges, dams, and we really need to take a hard look at this," Reid said Thursday.
He said it was "the right thing to do" for the infrastructure and the economy. "For every billion dollars we spend in our crumbling infrastructure, 47,000 high-paying jobs are created," Reid said.
Most bridges are inspected every two years and receive ratings based on the conditions of various components, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In addition to "structurally deficient," another bridge classification is "functionally obsolete," according to the Federal Highway Administration.
A bridge is tagged structurally deficient when significant bridge elements have deteriorated and the bridge's load-carrying capacity is reduced, according to the highway administration.
A bridge is dubbed functionally obsolete when the bridge does not meet current design standards.
Neither label indicates a bridge is unsafe for travel, the highway administration said.
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As of 2003, there were about 160,570 bridges deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The number represented 27.1 percent of the nation's bridges.
The American Society of Civil Engineers also reported that the number of bridge deficiencies had steadily declined from 34.6 percent in 1992 to 27.1 percent in 2003
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The man who claims to be superman
A man who claims to be superman
By Yohan Perera
He asserts that he has visited over 196 countries in the world and speaks over 102 languages, perhaps the person who can speak most languages in the world. This is not the only special thing about Captain R. A. F. Berenger or Superman as he is popularly known.
The 59-year-old Sri Lankan who is an Australian citizen, had travelled on 36 different flights and he claims that he was virtually killed and was lucky to have come back to life. He said doctors in Istanbul brought him back to life minutes after his clinical death.
The Superman was robbed assaulted and had his legs broken in North Korea and had been shot and injured in other places. He kept company with highway men in Africa.
The Superman who has a yen for cars had done some unusual stuff with the vehicles he own. He had had linked them together all by him self. This caravan consists of a bed room, a toilet bowl and a bar table. He only takes two minutes to fold the seat and take the bar table up or get the toilet bowl. The caravan has many more peculiarities. This caravan has a myriad of colours on its body. According to him there are 23 colours with some shades made all by himself. On the side of the caravan’s body he had painted a world map which is rather unusual.
He had painted the countries where black people live in black and where brown people live in brown. This way he had divided the countries on the skin colour of the people who live in each country. He had done it in such a way that a small child could easily understand and identify all 196 countries in the world.
After staying in Australia for many years since 1981, he returned to Sri Lanka and had been staying in his house in Maharagama which he calls simply “White House”.
Apart from his passion for travelling and cars he is also immensely interested in social work. In this respect he had been involved in many social welfare activities and had helped Sri Lankan Tsunami victims. He also used his caravan for many charitable deeds such as taking people on pilgrimage to ‘Atamasthana’ and tsunami victims on outings.
However the Superman had decided to go back to Australia but not before giving some thing to Sri Lanka. He had decided to present all his belongings to a poor school where the principal can have a raffle draw and collect funds for the school with the permission of education authorities.
The things he wishes to donate are the world largest bicycle worth Rs.160,000 and Mongoose Cycles worth Rs.36,000 and Rs.48,000. He is also donating his snooker table worth Rs.60,000 and saxophone worth Rs.60,000.
Anyone who is interested in his offer is invited to call him on 2851189.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Meet the Most Popular American Abroad
Meet the Most Popular American Abroad
Who says Americans are stingy?
Not the staff of Hell's Kitchen in Stockholm, who found themselves splitting a $12,252 tip over the weekend left by a mighty generous U.S. tourist, the Local reports.
The unknown American joined a posse of friends at the club Saturday for a night of reverie that included a Methuselah, or six-liter bottle, of Dom Perignon that alone cost $10,800 of the nearly $13,000 bill.
When the giant bottle of bubbly made its appearance the man and his five friends were joined by a bevy of bubblicious ladies, the Local reports.
But the American and his pals didn't seem to mind. They partied till the champagne was gone, and then the tourist quietly thanked the staff of Hell's Kitchen — in the Stureplan area of central Stockholm — before plopping down a tip that nearly equaled the final bill, the paper reports.
Hey big spender! Next time spend a little time with U.S.
He's the Thief, the Thief With the Midas Touch
TOKYO (AP) — A glittering bathtub made of gold and worth $987,000 has been stolen from a resort hotel near Tokyo, an official said Wednesday.
A worker at Kominato Hotel Mikazuki in Kamogawa, south of Tokyo, notified police the fancy tub was missing from the hotel's guest bathroom on the 10th floor of its building, according to a local police official who only gave his surname, Ogawa.
The round tub, 4 feet in diameter and 2 feet tall, was made of 18-karat gold weighing 176 pounds, Ogawa said.
The tub, flanked by two crane statues, has been a main feature of the hotel's shared bathroom. Visitors can take a dip in the tub, but it is only available a few hours a day "for security reasons," the hotel's Web site said.
Someone apparently cut the chain attached to the door of a small section of the bathroom where the bathtub was placed, but not riveted, and made off with the tub, Ogawa said. The cranes were left untouched.
"We have no witness information and there are no video cameras," he said. "We have no idea who took it."
Texas Pete Unavailable for Comment
MIAMI (AP) — A manager at a fast-food restaurant was shot several times in the arm early Tuesday trying to protect the chili sauce, authorities said.
A man in the Wendy's drive-through argued with an employee because he wanted more of the condiment, police said. The worker told the customer that restaurant policy prohibited a customer from getting more than three packets.
The man insisted on 10, reports said. The employee complied, but police said the customer wanted even more.
The manager came out to speak to the man, said Miami-Dade Police spokesperson Mary Walter. The customer then shot the manager, who was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The customer fled in his vehicle with a female passenger, authorities said.
He's Six Feet Underground, But He's Far From Dead and Gone
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A city fire investigator says he found a man living in a well-equipped underground bunker.
James O'Neill, an investigator with the city fire marshal's office, said the man, a 47-year-old veteran, uses car batteries to light the 16-foot-by-20-foot space, which is six feet underground. He cooks food in a hot pot.
The man said the bunker took two years to dig, O'Neill said.
The walls are covered with insulation and plastic tarps and the ceiling is made of wood and roofing material, said O'Neill, who discovered the home over the weekend while investigating a nearby fire. The man sleeps on a foam bed, O'Neill said.
"Some people would call him homeless, but he's a clean, well-spoken guy. When I spoke to him, he was reading a novel by Joseph Wambaugh," O'Neill told The Buffalo News.
The fire investigator declined to give the man's name or say where the bunker is located to protect the man's privacy. He said the man earns money doing occasional odd jobs.
"It's not the Marriott hotel by any means, but this man has made it comfortable down there," O'Neill said.
The man said he has been living in the bunker for about six years.
"He told me it's a peaceful and tranquil place to live," O'Neill said.
The Family That Studies Together ... Graduates Together
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah (AP) — Three generations of the same family, including a 72-year-old grandfather, are getting high school diplomas.
James Nunley, 36, his daughter Brittany Wright, 17, and father Jim Nunley, 72, of the Salt Lake City suburb of Cottonwood Heights, are all graduating.
Jim Nunley would have graduated in 1953 but left school with less than a year to go while working in the family's paint business.
"All those years, I kept thinking about it and thought I ought to do something about it," the elder Nunley said.
Jim Nunley entered a program for adults and his son joined him.
James Nunley, a truck driver, worked a 10-hour shift, then studied history and science each night for a month to make up 3.5 credits needed for a diploma.
Father and son graduate Saturday. Brittany is graduating June 5.
"It's a long time overdue. Weird," James Nunley said. "I don't even think it's hit me yet."
We Hope These Handcuffs Don't Come With a Skeleton Key
BECKWITH, W.Va. (AP) — A burglar broke into a police officer's home and stole handcuffs, a 40-caliber Glock service pistol, a police radio and a duty belt.
The burglar also took $2,175 worth of other items, including a PlayStation 2 game console, video games, a portable DVD player, a cell phone and cash, State Police Cpl. R. C. Workman said.
Workman said the unidentified officer and his family were not home when the break-in happened.
He said the gun, valued at $500, is a model that could be purchased anywhere, but the $1,800 radio is not an item a civilian would have.
Police do not know whether the burglar knew a police officer lived in the house, Workman said.
Thanks for the Memories
After three years, five editors and countless laughs, Out There is taking an extended vacation.
Changes at the Web site mean we have more room to run "Out There" stories on their own, so look for your favorite Moms and Dads of the Year stories, along with the hijinks of animals, criminals and all-around wacky people in our daily headlines.
Keep sending us your hometown tips, as you're sure to find those great stories and a whole lot more on FOXNews.com.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Sara Bonisteel.
Got a good "Out There" story in your hometown? We would like to know about it. Send an e-mail with a Web link (we need to authenticate these things) to outthere@foxnews.com.
KISS Lead Singer Paul Stanley Skips SoCal Concert Due to Heart Problems
SAN JACINTO, Calif. — KISS lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley had to bow out of a Southern California concert because of heart problems before the show, according to his Web site.
Band-mates Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer played the Friday night gig at Soboba Casino, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, as Stanley was taken to the hospital.
"During sound check yesterday, my heart spontaneously jumped to 190 plus beats per minute where it stayed for over an hour necessitating paramedics to start an IV and give me a shot to momentarily stop my heart and get it into a normal pattern," Stanley said in the Saturday Web site posting.
• Get hip to the beat in FOXNews.com's Music Center.
"Not knowing if this episode was life threatening made it even more exhausting," the statement continued.
Phone and e-mail messages for KISS manager Doc McGhee seeking comment about Stanley's condition were not immediately returned Saturday night.
It was KISS' first ever appearance as a trio, according to the band's Web site.
As famous for their makeup, stage mayhem and wagging tongues as their music, KISS recorded the 1970s hits "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "Detroit Rock City."
The 55-year-old Stanley, born Stanley Eisen, released a solo album, "Live to Win," in 2006.
Visit FOXNews.com's Music Center for complete coverage.
